Former Va. state senator's son abducts estranged wife, kills boyfriend and himself

The son of a former longtime Virginia state senator killed himself Tuesday after allegedly abducting his estranged wife and murdering her boyfriend in northeastern Virginia, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

Todd Houck, 36, of Spotsylvania, Va., confronted his 34-year-old estranged wife and her boyfriend, Jeremy Gift, at a motel about 30 miles northeast of Richmond around 8 a.m., authorities told the paper.

Houck’s father, Edd Houck, served 28 years in the state senate as a Democrat, losing his re-election bid in 2012.

The woman’s name was being withheld by authorities because she was an abduction victim.

After fatally shooting Gift, police said, Todd Houck abducted the woman and led police responding to a 911 call at the motel on a 30-mile chase north on Interstate 95, until Houck’s car stopped on the highway and struck a police vehicle just south of Fredericksburg.

Police said a gunshot was heard from inside the vehicle, and Todd Houck was later found dead inside of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The woman was not injured.

The incident was not Todd Houck’s first brush with law enforcement.

In 1999, the paper reported, Houck was involved in a nearly 12-hour standoff with Richmond police.

Sen. Houck said in a statement at the time that Todd Houck suffered from a “long history of mental illness.”